"Walking amid flowers"

This month’s edition of Scientific American Mind contains an article about Helen Mayberg and her experiments with Deep Brain Stimulation on depressed people. The article is called “Turning off depression” and can be read on the author’s website.

The tone of the article is enthusiastic, both about Professor Mayberg

“Eat dinner with Helen Mayberg, as I happily did, and you are treated not just to a good meal (for she appreciates good food as much as good ideas) but an infectious intellectual excitement. Lively of manner, with big eyes and a ready smile, Mayberg has a knack for stretching a meal while making the time pass quickly. At 50 she combines the enthusiasm of a freshly inspired grad student with the literate veteran’s appreciation of history.”

and about her experiments

“The results were stunning. Some patients felt profound relief as soon as [neurosurgeon] Lozano turned on the electrodes, and two-thirds returned to essentially normal mood and function within months. They saw better, thought better, felt better. They talked of walking amid flowers; of “the noise” stopping; of a horrid weight lifting. Side effects were almost negligible.”

We shall see.